China Responsible for Most Registered Blockchain Patents in 2017

Despite the on-going digital currency tensions in China, after the government has cracked down on crypto trading and mining throughout the country, it seems like China is holding the first place for the most blockchain patents filed in the year of 2017.

A Financial Times report outlined that the World Intellectual Property Organization received a total of 406 patents for innovative technologies in 2017, out of which, 225 were filed by China. To put things better into perspective, the runner-up is the United States, with 91 filed patents, followed by Australia with 13.

The report also showcased that Chinese companies made up 6 of the 9 biggest patent filers between 2012 and 2017, with Beijing Technology Development being responsible for the bulk of patent applications. It is important to keep in mind the aspects that not all approved patents lead to new technologies, as companies are only attempting to protect their ideas in case they move on to development later down the road.

Alex Batteson, of Thomson Reuters, mentioned that patents often represent an important tool that companies leverage to attract more investments. Therefore, filing patents showcases that a business is active in a certain market, and can capitalize on its intellectual property. In the future, this will help prevent other parties from claiming ownership of ideas.

When compared to the last couple of years, patent applications for blockchain technology have tripled in 2017, and are expected to increase in number even more by the end of the current year. Here, Batteson mentioned that: ‘Companies are moving fast in order to protect their ideas in new areas of technological development – long before the technology actually foes to market’.

Based on these aspects, China is well-involved in the blockchain technology industry. In fact, it has publicly announced its interest in the niche, by forming the China Blockchain Development Centre. A couple of days ago, the Chinese Ministry of Information Technology and Industry went ahead and published a list of objectives that would need to be fulfilled for the further development and standardization of blockchain technology in the region. One of the objectives speaks about creating standards that would be respected at an international level.